"They shouted...'Not this man, but Barabbas!' " (v. 40).

Our scripture reading brings us face-to-face with the most dramatic encounter between two people that earth has ever seen: the encounter between Jesus Christ, God's Son, and Pontius Pilate, a Roman procurator cum procurator. The procurator possessed full civil, military, and criminal jurisdiction and was the personal appointee of the emperor and directly responsible to him. So what we have here then is an encounter between God and Rome, between righteousness and iniquity. Right in the midst of this encounter, another personality enters the moment. In all likelihood, this person probably never dreamed that he would have a place in redemptive history and we can be equally certain that he never expected to win a popularity contest agai…